GANDHI: IMAGE AND REFLECTION

AMES 258

Amidst exuberant image production, how might we read Gandhi himself today? Study of Gandhi in the popular imaginary through two streams: first, a selection of Gandhi s own writings to understand how Gandhi formulates an ethical and political practice based on self-cultivation and accountability to the collective. Second, depictions of Gandhi s life and of Gandhi-like figures in film, print media, and other visual representations of the Gandhian way. Considers the aesthetic, ethical, and social meanings of Gandhian symbols such as the spinning wheel and homespun cloth, the ashram, and the ascetic. Course also more broadly explores how visual and material worlds connect with the moral. Instructor: Prasad